Ruck Posted November 17, 2011 Report Share Posted November 17, 2011 Bought an '83 KC 4x4 for $384 at a yard sale a few years ago, swapped in my '84 Z24 engine with a quarter million miles on it and ran it for a few years. Last summer I got the ol' white smoke out of the tailpipe, so I did a new head gasket. Cranked it up, and it ran fine (though a little skippy) for about a minute, then I started getting white smoke, serious white smoke, like the neighbors were gonna call the fire department volumes. A few tries, the engine is skipping pretty regularly. A friend with some mechanical expertise suggested it may be fixed, there just may be a lot of moisture in the catalytic converter and I should try to run it out. I suspect it is not so simple. Here's the deal: I have another engine sitting on an engine stand in the garage that I can rebuild with a $400 kit, then swap in; I can buy another beater engine for $200, or I can ask my new friends on this forum what the heck I should do. The vehicle is a honey, no body rust, no damage, shitty interior but I don't care; I love that it purrs when it is running and it's dirt simple to repair, normally. The junk is piling up in the side yard, need to get this thing running so I can hoe things out... Quote Link to comment
oldschool90 Posted November 17, 2011 Report Share Posted November 17, 2011 Sounds like something didn't get tightened down properly and is leaking coolant into the cylinders? Quote Link to comment
ggzilla Posted November 17, 2011 Report Share Posted November 17, 2011 More likely it is a leak other than the head gasket (since you already changed that). I've seen similar problems with * a cracked intake manifold * Corroded timing chain housing (pinhole leak) * automatic transmission vacuum leak sucking ATF into the engine Quote Link to comment
Ruck Posted November 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2011 Awsome answers, which I wish I saw before I went out and bought another engine. Sad story: Got me another engine, swapped it out, and along the way rebuilt the oil pump. Spoiler alert: oil pumps must be primed with oil to work. Three minutes into warmup the engine seized solid. Probably the original issue was not torquing down the intake manifold. I have another block, now I'm thinking of a complete engine rebuild... Quote Link to comment
ggzilla Posted November 30, 2011 Report Share Posted November 30, 2011 best to find out what the cause of the problem is ... then you'll know how best to proceed Quote Link to comment
Ruck Posted March 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Swapped this seized engine out for the other block in the garage; when I pulled the intake manifold I think that's where the leakage was happening. On the re-assemble (not really a rebuild) I RTV'd the manifold, put everything together, and after a really disappointing start (lots of white smoke) I just let the thing rev because it wasn't running poorly, figured it was just in the exhaust. Sure enough, after about a half hour the thing cleared up, no white smoke. Sadly, I gun the engine and get a lot of blue smoke with the exhaust. When I peered into the cylinders, the walls were not scored, nor were they crosshatched, so I suspect I have worn rings. Next step is to follow the instructions in these links, see if I can isolate the problem: http://datsun1200.com/modules/mediawiki/index.php?title=Compression_Test http://datsun1200.com/modules/mediawiki/index.php?title=Smoke I'm also going to replace the valve seals since I have a few sets of these from previous projects. Any feedback or suggestions appreciated. Quote Link to comment
86 720 Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Your valve stem seal replacement should fix the blue smoke problem. Those tend to be the main problem with blue smoke. Quote Link to comment
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